«The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Azerbaijan to the Netherlands Fikrat Akhundov published an article on the website of ewmagazine, this time accusing the Dutch parliamentarians and the Armenian community of the country․ The title of the article is also a rather serious one: “Armenia threatens peace in South Caucasus”.
The absurdity starts from the title, how can Armenia endanger peace, when on September 27 last year, ignoring the OSCE Minsk Group peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, with the help of Turkey and the participation of mercenaries, Azerbaijan, on a large scale, launched war against Nagorno-Karabakh, endangering 'peace in South Caucasus'.
This is an undisguised fact for the international community, but the Azerbaijani ambassador gently bypassed the attacker of the war and, as usual, turned the blame on Armenia. After the tripartite ceasefire agreement reached on November 10, 2020, Armenia could not take steps that would harm the peace. Moreover, Armenia lost its advantageous position as a result of the war and went to peace on unfavorable terms.
An obviously misleading interpretation for the public. This is just about the title.
https://www.ewmagazine.nl/buitenland/achtergrond/2021/01/balayan-europa-sluit-de-ogen-223118w/
Why particularly in the ewmagazin?
The ewmagazin correspondent asked RA Ambassador Tigran Balayan six questions about the recent war with Azerbaijan. The answers were published on January 28 under the headline "Europe closes its eyes". The figures presented by the Armenian ambassador, and the undeniable facts witness about the statistics of serious war crimes.
This was the reason for the Azeri ambassador to bring his article to ew. It is true that the article was not published in the print version, but it was published on the website with the caption that the standpoint presented does not necessarily coincide with the EW's opinion.
In other words, the weekly had a reservation and approached the problem correctly, because, as the comments at the bottom of the article show, the truth of the facts is problematic and they are repeated by various Azerbaijani politicians, as if they were Azerbaijani print-patterned products.
How realistic will the facts be? It does not matter to Mr. Akhundov. It's important to say, blame and move on. It may be acceptable to the ear of an uninformed audience. Honorable Ambassador Akhundov, who started his mission in the Kingdom of the Netherlands in February 2020, already has this experience.
When the “Diplomat Magazine” published articles about the cultural life of Armenia, about the cooperation with the Francophone countries and the popular processes in Armenia in the conditions of the coronavirus, the Azerbaijani ambassador responded with an article on the same website about their "brilliant" model of tolerance, religious and ethnic unity. (Azerbaijan is a model of multiculturalism and tolerance, April 5, 2020, Diplomat Magazine).
It praised and spoke about the care and preservation of monuments, how various nations on the "Land of Fire", including Armenians, live together in solidarity. What is said, being far from the truth, at least as far as Armenians are concerned, was "encountered" by the widespread destruction of Armenian cultural monuments in Azerbaijan, the beheading of Christian crosses and the destruction of khachkar-monuments. The true picture and the answer to this article by Akhundov is reflected in The Netherlands Diary /Նիդեռլանդական Օրագիր /website. («Azerbaijan As A Brilliant Model of A Unity of Tolerance, Religion, Ethnicity! Serious or a Joke?». Friday, 26 June 2020) Find it here: https://www.nidoragir.com/2020/06/azerbaijan-as-brilliant-model-of-unity.html
Comparing these two articles, the reader will see the falsity and the truth with the naked eye
This answer was posted for a long time on the Facebook page of the same “Diplomat Magazine”.
Ambassador Fikrat Akhundov has nothing to say in face-to-face meetings with the deputies
The Honorable Ambassador of Azerbaijan, who sensitively follows the Dutch press and reacts so consistently, avoids practical meetings where he can shout loudly about the "truth" of Azerbaijan. He did not even participate at the session of the Foreign Affairs Committee convened by the Dutch Parliament, February 4th, the Hague, where, by the way, the invited Ambassador of Armenia made a speech. The Azeri ambassador, who taught lessons on tolerance and democracy, equated his refusal of the meeting with the presence of his Armenian counterpart. Neglecting the fact that the Foreign Affairs Committee, as a compromise, offered him to attend the session of the commission not simultaneously with the Armenian Ambassador. The Azerbaijani ambassador rejected this optionas well, thus rejecting the meeting of the Azerbaijani side with the members of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Instead, looting, addressed to parliamentarians, can abundantly be found in the press.
Thus, Mr. Akhundov, avoiding the parliamentary tribune of a democratic country like the Netherlands, uses (or rather abuses) the opportunity to give his speech in the press, directly accusing the parliamentarians of the country where he is accredited from the ewmagazin website. According to him, "11 unprecedented resolutions against Azerbaijan" were adopted under the influence of "some parliamentarians of populist parties" in the Netherlands.
He attributes this to the influence of the Armenian lobby, ostensibly to get the votes of Armenian voters in the March 2021 parliamentary elections.
In fact, giving such populist qualifications to these factions is, to put it mildly, the result of either ignorance or illiteracy. These parties are part of the ruling coalition in the parliament, and, it is not up to the diplomat-representative of the ruling Aliev clan to rate the 30-year-old democratic system in the Netherlands.
But no, the ambassador goes further, accusing some Dutch advisers of spreading racist, nationalist, chauvinist sentiments against Azerbaijan.The ambassador is pouring his bile of anger on the Dutch deputies and the Armenian community in vain.
Azerbaijani-Turkish aggression was not only condemned by the Dutch parliament, similar resolutions were adopted in Belgium, France, Luxembourg, by parliamentarians and organizations of other countries, by progressive humanity. But the ambassador attributes these acts to the influence of the Armenian Diaspora, who have abused freedom of speech, who "do not think about their homeland, but act rather against Azerbaijan. "
The Armenian community of the Netherlands has been mercilessly criticized.
What is interesting and strange is that, he and nobody else, the ambassador of the country that invaded and besieged Artsakh with a huge amount of weapons and mercenaries bought with petrodollars, accuses the Armenian Diaspora of the Benelux countries of organizing a "dirty campaign" against Azerbaijan, violating European values and freedom of speech.
In another episode, the diplomat of the country that disturbed the peace and resolved the issue through war, criticizes and accuses, this time not the individual parties with "populist views", but directly the Dutch parliament, which acted unfairly and did not condemn the Armenian side responding to the Azerbaijani bombings. Akhundov considers it fair that such a resolution should mention the destruction of Azerbaijani victims, historical monuments and cultural monuments.
The attacker complains that the tooth that clung to the victim was damaged.
The Armenian community of the Netherlands is an integrated part of the Dutch society, which actively participates in the establishment and building of democracy, participates in events organized in the multinational cultural life of the country, is in close and friendly relations with other communities.
The ambassador who likes to talk about tolerance should know that there are fewer Armenians living in the Netherlands than the number of Armenians already mentioned in his various articles in Azerbaijan. In his words, in addition to the Armenians of Artsakh, 30 thousand other Armenians live in tolerant Azerbaijan. Now it is a simple and logical question for the ambassador to think about.
Isn’t it strange that with such a large number of Armenians living in Azerbaijan, there are no Armenian schools, newspapers, cultural centers, the only church in Baku has lost its dome cross, and fewer Armenians in the Netherlands have several Armenian churches, cultural centers, many Armenian Sunday schools, newspaper and so on? Besides, this happens when there had been no shortage of them before.
How can it be explained that in the Netherlands the Armenian cultural values and monuments, the Armenian names of streets, bridges, churches and other places have been preserved, while on the territory of Azerbaijan they are almost completely absent, while in the past the area was famous for its rich Armenian cultural heritage?
It is difficult for the ambassador to answer this simple question, as in recent years Azerbaijan has fought back against everything Armenian, even the impregnable medieval monasteries with Armenian letters have been attributed to another culture. Unfortunately, Azerbaijan's anti-Armenian propaganda did not recognize borders. We think Ambassador Akhundov knows about Turkish-Azerbaijani friendship in the Netherlands and its President Ilhan Ashkin.
He did not learn the lessons of tolerance and cultural rapprochement of different nations in the multinational Netherlands, he did not realize his guilt and was punished by the Dutch highest courts for the nationalist expression "Karabakh will be the grave of the Armenians". Azerbaijan did not realize the meaning of Ashkin's words, as they became the perpetrators of this crime in 2020 September 27, starting a war.
Ashkin's act (like that of the murderer Safarov) was encouraged in Azerbaijan, one of the pro-government websites wrote an article about him and entitled as follows: "The Netherlands punishes the Azerbaijani for criticizing Armenia". ( https://haqqin.az/news/94878)
https://www.ad.nl/almelo/hoge-raad-oproep-tot-geweld-tegen-armeniers-in-almelo-bewezen~a6f4485f/
https://dekanttekening.nl/nieuws/nederlander-veroordeeld-voor-aanzetten-tot-geweld-tegen-armeniers/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qOHNn1hGtw&ab_channel=HayAzian
But The Facts Say Something Else.
The ambassador of Azerbaijan, disguised behind the four UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 և 884), which were ambiguously in favor of Azerbaijan, justifies the use of military force, which resulted in the loss of human lives on both sides, blames the Armenian government for all the sins in the world. Let us not go too far, just consider the situation that arose as a result of the war, which is purely humanitarian.
The ambassador can really convince the uninformed audience, but it is undeniable that this and other times the war against Nagorno Karabakh was started by Azerbaijan. During the last war Azerbaijan thrice aborted ceasefire proposals of OSCE MG leaders, violated agreements for liberating all the POWs, still delays UNESCO’s missionary visit with the aim of rating the state of cultural values.
It is not clear that almost three months have passed since the ceasefire, but Azerbaijan keeps hundreds of battered Armenians, some of whom are tortured and killed, ignores calls for their release from the European Union, and threatens to sever ties with the EU.
"Meanwhile, Azerbaijan continues to fulfill its obligations," Akhundov wrote to EW.
Anyhow, this statement doesn’t reveal what other obligations are meant by the ambassador of Azerbaijan.
There has been no shortage of words to cover up the reality, to lead a peaceful life in Azerbaijan and to be tolerant.
Since January 11, 2004, Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan had been participating in NATO “Partnership for Peace” English language courses. But on February 19 the peace course was overshadowed by Azeri officer Ramil Safarov, who killed his Armenian counterpart, while the latter was asleep at night, with a 16-stroke ax, returned to Azerbaijan later and became a hero.
Well, if these and the above-mentioned cases had been adequately assessed politically and legally in the past, then it would have been improbable for the ambassador of a dictatorial country to present unrealistic information with pink glasses to the civilized Europe.
In this article we have referred only to the accusations made by the Ambassador against the Dutch MPs and the Armenian community. His words on other topics are so illogical, ridiculous, unrealistic and contradictory that there is no need to pay attention to. What has happened is enough to shape an idea of the ongoing anti-democratic processes in Azerbaijan and its attitude towards Armenia.
Niderlandakan oragir
«Նիդերլանդական օրագիր»